Stadium Change To Amphitheater Gets Opposition

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Parents, principals and football coaches urged the city`s Aviation Advisory Board on Thursday to stop the conversion of Lockhart Stadium into an amphitheater.

But board members said there is nothing they could do.

``You`re a fine preacher and your sermon is good,`` Board Chairman John Fuhrer told one of the speakers. ``But you are in the wrong church.``

Fuhrer said that the board already recommended that city commissioners turn the property over to the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

``We are in the same boat because the city has not accepted our recommendation,`` Fuhrer said.

Neither group wants the stadium to be used as an amphitheater. Aviation board members want the property for airport use, while the residents want it to remain as a stadium for high school sports.

The residents appealed to the aviation board after city commissioners agreed earlier this month to turn Lockhart Stadium over to a private developer for use as an amphitheater.

Commissioners said the stadium cost the city about $100,000 a year more than it collects in rent and that $50,000 in repairs are needed this year.

``When a city makes a decision of this magnitude, one has to be concerned with things other than dollars and cents,`` parent George Moraitis said. ``We are talking about the future of Broward County`s youth.``

City officials said they would be willing to provide space to the School Board for a stadium at Mills Pond Park, now being being built north of Northwest 19th Street near Interstate 95.

The 138-acre park will be the largest in the city when completed.

Clarence Noe, Broward County schools athletic director, and Rick Perry, president of the Broward County Football Association and head coach at Stranahan High School, told board members they would not consider the new park for high school football games.

``It`s in an area that I will not let my team go into`` because of a high crime rate, Perry said. ``I`ll forfeit my team before I let them play there. If it`s so great, why don`t they put the amphitheater there?``

John V. Russell, the city`s mayor 30 years ago when Lockhart Stadium was built, questioned whether the Federal Aviation Administration would allow the city to use the site for an amphitheater.

The FAA has control over non-aviation use of airport property.

``I don`t think the city can take a recreational use and turn it over to a private developer,`` Russell said.

But Airport Director William Crouch said the FAA could approve the amphitheater project.

He also said the protesters were talking to the wrong board.

``They should be talking to the Parks and Recreation Board, or the City Commission,`` Crouch said.

The recreation board proposed that city commissioners accept theater producer Zev Bufman`s plan for the amphitheater at Lockhart. Bufman is the top contender for the Lockhart lease, although commissioners will look at ideas from other developers.